Mon, Oct 06 2008
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Published May 17, 2008 04:50 pm - FRANKFORT — The new budget year hasn’t even begun, but Gov. Steve Beshear is already asking state agencies to evaluate the impact of an additional potential 4.5 percent cut in funding. More budget cuts loom By RONNIE ELLIS CNHI News Service FRANKFORT — The new budget year hasn’t even begun, but Gov. Steve Beshear is already asking state agencies to evaluate the impact of an additional potential 4.5 percent cut in funding.
The $19 billion, two-year budget passed this spring by the General Assembly contained no new taxes but counted on savings from expected state employee retirements. The budget, which takes effect July 1, cut spending for most services and agencies generally by a minimum of 6 percent and some programs by as much as 12 percent. That followed a 3 percent budget reduction implemented by Beshear after he took office and found what his budget director Mary Lassiter describes as the worst revenue shortfall in memory. The budget also requires the administration to find $178 million in savings in the first year of the budget and $193 million in the second. Lawmakers included ways to look for savings in the budget, said Lassiter, including personnel reductions through the expected retirements and debt service restructuring. “We’ve started the planning process for that,” said Lassiter. The administration this week sent state agencies and constitutional offices a letter asking them to “evaluate options as to the best way to achieve the required savings,” she added. Personnel accounts for most of the budgets of most agencies. Les Fugate, spokesman for Secretary of State Trey Grayson, said that 80 percent of that office’s budget is tied directly to personnel. “Every option is on the table at this point,” Fugate said. “We’ve already gone past cutting to the bone – we’re into the marrow.” Lassiter and Dick Brown, Beshear’s director of communications, stressed that no final decision has been made to seek the additional reductions. “The administration is in the preliminary stages of determining how to implement the recently enacted state budget and no final decisions have been made in any area yet,” said Brown. Beshear’s Secretary of the Cabinet, Larry Hayes, echoed that statement, but said agencies are being asked to determine where such cuts could be made. Allison Martin, spokeswoman for Attorney General Jack Conway, confirmed her office had received the letter from Beshear’s administration. “Right now, we are looking at programs which we might be able to downsize or eliminate,” Martin said. 
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